Manufacturers are constantly striving to maintain a competitive edge in the marketplace by reducing costs and increasing throughput. Particularly in the case of mass manufactured products, for example automobile parts, even a small decrease in manufacturing costs or a slight increase in manufacturing efficiency can make a significant difference in the manufacturer's competitiveness.
Work space is usually one of the more significant costs of a manufacturing operation, so one way of reducing manufacturing costs is to improve the efficiency of work space usage. Most manufacturing facilities are located indoors, within a structure that provides a fixed amount of floor space for manufacturing equipment and processes. Accordingly, it would be beneficial to a manufacturer to increase the amount of work surface available for manufacturing equipment and processes within a fixed floor space, which allows more workers to work in the same floor space.